DISMISS this Worthless Anti National GOI to Save Our Motherland, Once Again on the Verge of Disintegration! Marathi Nationality Mistackled. North East Crushed. Assam Wounded. Kashmir and Tamilnadu Boil. Bengal on Red Alert. Indigenous Communities Slaughtered to Run the Money Machine and Sustain Harmonies! CHINALINK Discovered to Justify US Slavery! Obama Win Ensured, Global Hegemony Launches Anti Black Anti Muslim Anti Indigenous Hatred Campaign!
Election days away, Obama keeps sense of urgency, 1st LdAP foreign, Thursday October 30 2008 By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer= KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he doesn't want to look back on the final days of the campaign and regret not doing something to help sway voters.
Both Obama and his Republican rival, John McCain, are stepping up their efforts to reach voters in swing states as next week's election draws closer.
In an interview broadcast Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Obama said that when the polls close, he doesn't want to ask himself if there was an argument he didn't make or a hand he didn't shake.
Obama is targeting Florida, Virginia and Missouri on Thursday while McCain is taking the fight to Defiance, Ohio, in a quest to tilt the few remaining swing states his way.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7958581
DISMISS THIS WORTHLESS DUSTBIN, USED CONDOME OF US CORPORATE IMPERIALISM, the Government of India TO SAVE INDIA! Faces fascist and Imperialist happened to be exposed as it happened Never Before!The country has witnessed 64 serial blasts in six states in less than six months leaving 215 people dead and nearly 900 injured.
The security scenario in the country in the wake of serial blasts in Assam and the attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra are understood
to have figured prominently during the meeting of the Union Cabinet on Thursday night.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took place on a day when the blasts in the north-eastern state claimed 61 lives.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil is understood to have briefed the cabinet on the prevailing security scenario in the country as also measures to contain the possibility of a flare-up in the wake attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra.
Union ministers from Bihar Lalu Prasad of RJD and Ram Vilas Paswan of LJP have criticised the Congress-led Maharashtra government's handling of the hate campaign launched by MNS chief Raj Thackeray as also its "failure" to protect the north Indians in the state.
Though there was no official word on what transpired at the cabinet meeting, an official spokesperson said a media briefing on the meeting, which went till late into the night, will be held on Friday.
The United States has condemned as "horrific attacks on innocent people" the serial blasts in Assam today and extended its deepest sympathies to the families of the victims.
On behalf of the US, Ambassador David C Mulford extended his deepest sympathies to families of those killed and injured in the blasts.
"I send condolences to the people of India. Americans share their sorrow and outrage at these horrific attacks on innocent people," Mulford was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the American embassy.
Curfew has been imposed in Guwahati following the serial bomb blasts in the city and some other cities of Assam on Thursday morning!In New Delhi,Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta has said that the Centre is co-ordinating with the Assam government to keep the situation under control!On the other hand,The Congress on Thursday sought to come to the rescue of beleaguered Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, under flak from its friends and foes alike in the wake of attacks on north Indians!Bihar's ruling JD(U) on Thursday threatened that all its five Lok Sabha members will resign if the violence was not checked by November 6. The casualty figures are likely to rise with the condition of many of the injured being critical. The injured included many women and children. Powerful, high-intensity bombs went off simultaneously at around 11.30 am. The first blast in Guwahati occurred at a vegetable and fruit market at Ganeshguri near the flyover adjacent to the high security secretariat and the Assembly.
Denying any intelligence failure behind a series of bomb blasts in Assam on Thursday, Minister of State for Home Shakeel Ahmed said the terror attack could be linked with the communal clashes in the northeastern state this month.
"No, there is no intelligence failure in this case. Even after intelligence reports, intensive policing is needed to avoid such tragedies," said Ahmed, also a spokesman for the Congress party.
"Although we can't say who is behind the blasts, there were communal clashes in different parts of Assam on October 03 and October 05 in which at least 57 people were killed and 2,25,000 people had to take refuge in relief camps," he said.
Without naming any organisation, he said, “Such acts of terror are the result of politics of hate that is being spread in different parts of the country."
Conceding that it was difficult at this initial stage to say who were behind the blasts or whether it was an act of people from across the border or from within, the Minister said, “Now even those who used to blame others are found to be involved in the acts of terror."
He was referring to the arrest of five people this month, some of whom are said to have been associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or its affiliates. They were nabbed in connection with bomb blasts in Maharashtra and Gujarat on September 29.
Barrack Hussein Obama`s Win ensured, Global Hindu Zionist White hegemony launched Anti black Anti Muslim Anti Indigenous HATRED campaign most intense. kabul and Guahati clubbed together to justify War against terrorism! Barack Obama's presidential campaign is releasing two new ads that it's calling its "closing argument" for supporting Obama over Republican John McCain.
IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Thursday that he was more optimistic about the global financial crisis now that some calm is returning
g to markets after action to halt the slide by US and European governments.
"If the extreme volatility of the markets shows that the financial crisis continues to have an impact ... I hope very much that this volatility will calm because the US and European (stability) programmes are solid," Strauss-Kahn told Le Monde daily on Thursday.
"They just need a little time to get going full speed," he added.
Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday called for a thorough probe ‘iimpartially and with the same degree of intensity’ into all blasts in the country since 2003 for which activists of Hindu groups Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal are allegedly responsible. The CPI-M’s demand came in the wake of the arrest of a woman missionary, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, and two RSS workers for the Sep 29 Malegaon blast. Furthering their ties with Mayawati-led BSP, the CPI(M) will ask its cadre to vote for BSP candidates in the coming Delhi Assembly polls where the Left parties are not in fray.
In guahati,Angered by the Tarun Gogoi government's alleged failure to protect the citizens, people on Thursday attempted to storm into the state secretariat with two of the charred bodies of serial blast victims in Guwahati even as hundreds took to the streets in protest. ( Watch )
As Assam bled, a mob carrying two charred bodies on a push cart tried to storm its way in through the gates of the secretariat in Dispur.
Hailing the first democratic elections in the Maldives which ended the 30-year reign of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the US on Thursday said the results mark a "historic milestone" in the transition to "political pluralism" for the island nation.
Former political prisoner and opposition figurehead Mohammad "Anni" Nasheed defeated longtime ruler Gayoom in the presidential run-off in the country, the results of which were declared yesterday.
"The United States congratulates the people of Maldives on the successful completion of their first multi-party elections. Today's results mark a historic milestone in the transition to political pluralism for Maldives," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.
International envoys pushed on Rwanda and Congo on Thursday to end a rebellion on their border, with EU presidency holder France pressing for the rapid deployment of an EU force.
Army has FREE HANDS in Asaam and rest of the North East. They have infinite power under AFPSA umbrella and encounter remains the Fauzi Culture. Human Rights and civil rights suspended as well. Despite all these moves why this GOI fails so miserably to stop the Flow Of Blood!It is Baghdad in Guwahati. Three back to back major car bombs followed up by two booby- trapped bombs and if that was not enough seven more bombs in other parts of Assam saw at least 66 dead and 470 injured.A high alert was sounded in Sikkim and northern West Bengal, and the police intensified patrolling and launched intense checks following the serial bomb blasts in various parts of Assam, including nearby Kokrajhar Thursday.Sikkim Director General of Police Akshay Kumar Sachdeva told IANS by telephone from Gangtok that security was beefed up in all districts of the state that has a common border with West Bengal. With northern West Bengal sharing an extensive border with Assam, steps were also taken to pre-empt any possibility of militants sneaking into West Bengal.
What a Link to justify the War against Terrorism! What indian ruling Hegemony highlights , mind you, it is the US Strategic stance also! A series of explosions rip through the northeast Indian state of Assam! Suicide bomber hits a central government ministry in Kabul! Congolese rebels declare ceasefire. In the Philippines, Islamist separatist conflict threatens a forgotten indigenous people!
Intelligence officials are blaming these latest explosions on the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a separatist militant group which has waged a long-running insurgency in the region. According to Assam police chief RN Mathur, "No other group can trigger so many blasts in so many places in such a coordinated fashion."
In recent weeks security forces have launched a massive crackdown on the group's senior leadership. "Ulfa is striking back in a massive way by taking on soft targets," Mathur said.
ULFA has waged a war for independence in Assam, and the expulsion of non-Assamese people from the state, for over two decades. An effort to start peace talks between the rebels and the Indian government broke down in 2006. If ULFA is responsible, this latest attack serves to highlight the numerous ethnic and national fissures which fragment India's multi-cultural, multi-ethnic mosaic. India's northeast in particular is home to numerous armed separatist groups. It is estimated that more than 10,000 people have died in this region in the past decade.
The Director General of Police office said that curfew has been imposed in four areas in Guwahati - Pan Bazar, Bhangagarh, Ganeshguri and Hatigaon.
Following the blasts, crowds angry clashed with police in some areas of Guwahati. Some people were injured in the clash and at one place the police even fired in the air to disperse an angry mob.
My country, your country, our country, our Motherland is on the verge of disintegration once again and the MOTHR is BONDED forever. Chettiar Gangsters of World Bank, IMF, WTO, White House, Pentagon combined with Planning Commission, FIMIN and RBI has BASTARDISED Indian Economy to feed the Greed corporate MNC Money Machine. While Washington planted PM, Defacto PM the Elite Brhmin from bengal an Italian citizen ganged up to dismantle the socil Political fabrics of this divided bleedin geopolitics!
The northeastern state was hit by four blasts earlier this month, killing at least two people and wounding 100 others.
Previous bombings in the state have largely been blamed on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which has been fighting the government for an independent homeland since 1979.
In the past two decades, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the state, which is known for its tea, timber and oil reserves.
Public support for the ULFA has dwindled in recent years after a series of attacks in public places that claimed heavy civilian casualties.
Non-Assamese people make up nearly one-quarter of the remote state's 26 million people. The state has some 800,000 people from Bihar state, many of whom have lived in Assam for decades.
Ringed by China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, India's northeast is home to more than 200 tribes and has been racked by separatist revolts since India gained independence from Britain in 1947.
The BASTARD Ruling hegemony would never address the Nationality issue! Never! We see some ripples, of course, while a man like Narendra Modi of Gujarat claims Economic Independence and proposes not to pay any central tax! Mainland Tribal bases like Jharkhand, Telengana and Chhattishgargh repressed time to time. Only MILITARY solution happens to be the Right Answer for the Power hegemony. They keep on India BURNING to mobilise BLIND Nationality for the Enslaved Population and kill the selected unwanted demographies violating Human and Civil Rights!
They mistackled MARATHI nationality and pitted entire North India against Maharashtra playing Divide and Rule as well as subversion game most shrewdly!
Entire NORTH EAST Remains under Military Rule!
So is kashmir!
Tamil as DRAVID nationality treated as Foreign!
Now,Assam BLEEDS once again! As the worth less Government of India discovers CHINA LINK this time to avoid responsibility of Assam Wounds!All the blasts took place almost simultaneously at about 1130 hrs IST at crowded marketplaces.
Paresh Barua, the most wanted ULFA Commander is said to be based in China nowadays. Paresh barua had been in Dhaka for years. Other ULFA bases also remain intact in Bangladesh. ULFA brigade operates from Myanmar. Pranab Rushed to Myanmar and struck a deal with the Military Junta there.
What happened? This was the worst Assam had seen in its 20-year insurgency and contrary to government claims, the ordinary people believe it as an HuJI attack and Congress government was protecting them by bringing ULFA’s name into picture. Sify.com reports. according to sify reporter: With the intensity, timing and ground position of the ULFA coupled together, the needle of suspicion points at the militants of the Islamic organizations that have been taking wings under a blind government of Assam that is keen to defend itself than tackling terrorists.
“Let them protect the Islamic militants. Congress is not interested in national security. They are more interested in their vote bank and see the results today,” said the AASU Adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya.
Rhetoric apart, Assam was ripped apart by the most devastating terrorist attack!
Diwali on Tuesday brought added joy in West Bengal with cyclone 'Rashmi' sparing the state on the occasion of the festival of lights. Days of angry clouds that threatened to build up to a cyclone,gave way to a clear autumn morning indicating that the worst was over, bringing people out on the streets for some last-minute shopping.
Sweet shops and fireworks kiosks did brisk business.
It is festival time for the Ruling Hegemony!
It is Business time for the Money machine!
It is manipulation time for the Political parties!
During the day, streams of worshippers visited Kali temples, including the ones in Kalighat and Thanthania here, besides Dakshineswar and Adyapeeth in the northern suburbs and Tarapeeth, the seat of Tantra in Birbhum district.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited the Lake Kalibari in south Kolkata and offered puja.
As fireworks illuminated the evening sky crowds did the rounds of community Kali Puja pandals decked up with streams of twinklers and earthen lamps.
It is TIME for Death for the Enslaved Majority in india!
I remember the faces glittering DURING Bihu FESTIVAL!
Echoes of APBHRANSH Ahamia songs haunt me anytime!
I remember my people, the dalit Bengali refugees based in Nagaon, Kacchar, Hilakandi, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Kamroop and maligaon districts. I visited Barfak Villages in Maligaon and I remember the helpless faces.
I remember Bihu Guru Prafulla Gogoi. Mausumi saikia, the Bihu empress and her troup! I may not forget Bihu Expert Isamail and his younson, the kid who writes charming poetry.
I remember all those lines of ahmia literature , I have read!
I see clear the activities in KAMAKHYA shrine and the live FISH Market on the bank of Great Brahmaputra.
I see Blood, only blood spiled everywhere. The BLOODSTREAM runs through this divided geopolitics and if you happen to be sensitive enough you may feel the HEAT.
Earlier they suspected HuJI militants struck terror in the hub of North-East, considered by far the worst attack! They have been habitual to link Subvertive activities to CIA til Indira`s Demise and then began to blame ISI! With strategic reaaliance with United states of America, GOI dares not to name CIA. It is rare opportunity for the Super Slaves ruling India to Blame China and Justify the Slavery! Hindutva Forces tend to see MUSLIM hand in everything wrong in India! UPA and NDA stand united to crush the Nationalities as well as Minorities.
How similar happens to be the stance of Ulfa and that of Indian political parties!
Insurgent group ULFA has sought expulsion of Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam, a demand which is significant as most of the top leaders of the outfit are believed to be sheltered in the neighbouring country.
ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who made it clear that his outfit will not tolerate any kind of "intrusion" in Assam, also sought ouster of Nepali migrants from the state.
"ULFA opposes any kind of intrusion in Assam. Not only Bangladeshi intruders, migrants from Nepal must also be identified and deported," Rajkhowa said in an e-mail interview.
The demand for ouster of Bangladeshis is significant as ULFA's top leaders, including Rajkhowa and Paresh Barua, are believed to be taking shelter in Bangladesh and directing operations from there.
Expulsion of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from Assam has been a major political issue in the state and a cause for community clashes there several times.
Rajkhowa, who is said to be a proponent of talks within the group, also seemed to be unperturbed by the arrest of members of the People's Consultative Group (PCG), which is a mediator between the central government and the insurgent group.
Mind you, Indian citizenship Act is changed just to deport the Partition Victim Bengali speaking Refugees resettled Countrywide. Buddhadeb convinced Adwani to bring the Bill as he was unsure of the support needed for a constitutional Amendment. Pranab Mukherjee played key role to enact the Biil. A nationwide drive against partition victim bengalies launched with an unprecedented alliance of NDA, UPA and the Left!
Why ULFA should be treated otherwise as it raises the Nationality question suppressed by Miltiray hand of the brahaminical hegemony!
Now see how the Marxist Hypocrisy works!
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Wednesday announced launching of a weeklong countrywide campaign against communalism and terrorism beginning Thursday. The top leaders of the party will address rallies in different parts of the country, CPI-M politburo member M.K. Pandhe said here Wednesday.
The decision to launch the campaign was taken in the central committee meeting of the party held in the second week of this month, Pandhe told IANS.
“Special emphasis would be given to the areas affected by communal violence and terror attacks,” Pandhe said.
Delhi state secretary of the CPI-M, Pushpinder Grewal said the party has circulated 160,000 leaflets in Delhi against communalism and terrorism.
How the US Intervention is justified in Third world countries,just try to link these stories!
On the other hand, Trinamul Congress chief, Miss Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of being soft in its handling of “atrocities” by the CPI-M in West Bengal and wondered whether it has any tacit understanding with the Marxists.
“The Centre acted with reasonable promptness while dealing with worse situations in Maharashtra, Orissa and in some other states. But when the CPI-M with the help of the state administration has been unleashing a reign of terror in West Bengal, it is surprisingly sitting tight,” alleged Miss Banerjee.
She said that CPI-M is going the Nandigram way at Salboni, Goaltore and in Garbetta.
“If CPI-M thinks that they will use force to suppress our movement then they are making a fool of themselves. We know how and where to oppose. This being the festive season, we were busy meeting different people, but CPI-M has chosen this season to cause disruption and violence,” she said.
She reacted to Nano Bachao Committee’s statement that they won’t allow the Trinamul to enter Singur. “Tata’s contractors have no business to say such words. The CPI-M has shown the audacity by not allowing Mahasweta Debi and some theatre personalities to perform in Asansol as they are against CPI-M.
She said that the Punjab government has turned down Tata’s proposal to set up Nano over there as they demanded Rs 1,200 crore, various “benefit” against Tata’s Rs 570 crore investment, it appeared in The Tribune on 24 September.
She alleged: “Here Mr Tata in connivance with CPI-M has said “no” to Nano after 21 days of Raj Bhavan accord was signed by the state industry and commerce minister and the Leader of the Opposition.”
She also said that for the past 30 years the state government did little to do away with vector-borne diseases and at present it has taken on epidemic proportions.
She noted that today also at least three people died of dengue and alleged that the state government is fudging the figures. Her party will open medical camps in Wards and conduct blood tests with the help of IMA doctors and create awareness among people.
She said Mr S Jindal is setting up a mega steel plant and CPI-M has no business to put up red flags and Dr Manas Bhuinya too has written a letter to the chief minister seeking his intervention to stop CPI-M atrocities in the area.
Meanwhile,Kerala's exposed Terror links with Kashmir militants are set to upset the electoral strategies of the CPI(M), targeting the Muslim vote bank in the state.
Comrades here had been dreaming big on the anti-imperialistic sentiments of the Muslim community in the post-nuclear deal scenario. Many Muslim leaders, too, had sounded that the deal would be a key agenda in the next elections.
But the appalling revelations about the militant network in the state has brought terrorism to the forefront of political discussion. Going by all indications, the issue would be a hot electoral topic for the first time in the state.
Setting the tone for the poll agenda, Indian Union Muslim League state secretary Dr M K Muneer on Wednesday said his party did not want the votes of the National Development Front, a right wing Muslim outfit facing serious allegations in the unfolding terror drama. The League is a constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front in the state.
Now have a US FEEL on War Against terrorism!
Deadly car bombs hit Somaliland
A series of suicide car bombs exploded across northern Somaliland and Puntland on Wednesday. Reports indicate that at least 29 people were killed when five bombs ripped through key targets including the presidential palace, the Ethiopian consulate and UN offices, all within minutes of each other. Both regions had until now been largely spared the daily violence rocking southern and central Somalia.
Puntland's President Mohamoud Musa Hirsi Adde said the attacks were "organised from the same place and by the same people." Responsibility for the attacks is currently unclear, however most suspect Islamist insurgents, given the coordinated nature of the bombings and the targeting of Ethiopia. US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer said they bore the markings of al-Qaeda.
Jean Ping of the African Union noted they "came at a time of renewed efforts by IGAD, the AU and the United Nations to bring about lasting peace, security and reconciliation in Somalia." Regional leaders are currently meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, to discuss the ongoing crisis in Somalia and the performance of the transitional federal government.
Suicide attack on Afghan government ministry
Three people were killed and nine injured when a suicide bomb ripped through an Afghan ministry in Kabul on Thursday. Two men using small arms fought police guards at the entrance to the Ministry of Culture and Information while a third gained entry to the building and detonated the bomb. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack in statements to news agencies. Although security in the capital has improved, with attacks down by 50 per cent on last year, this incident is the latest "audacious" attack by Taliban militants. A number of high-profile incidents in the capital have demonstrated increasingly sophisticated tactics, such as the mixing of both suicide bombers and gunmen, which analysts believe is designed to gain maximum press coverage.
Congolese rebels declare ceasefire
Rebels led by General Nkunda fighting government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a unilateral cease-fire after a four day offensive in North Kivu province. Forces of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) were just 25 kilometres from the major city of Goma when they declared a halt to fighting late yesterday. A statement signed by Nkunda said the intention was "not to panic the population of Goma as well as those who are in displaced persons camps in the immediate environs of the city". Despite the ceasefire, chaotic scenes have erupted in the city with reports that Congolese soldiers are out of control. Tens of thousands of people have fled the city contributing to an already dire humanitarian situation. According to the UN, fighting since 28 August has pushed the number of displaced civilians in North Kivu to more than one million.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the conflict "is creating a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions." He also suggested that the conflict threatens the entire region, referring to reports that Rwandan soldiers were involved in the fighting against Congolese government forces, and that heavy weapons fire had taken place across the DRC-Rwanda border.
Collapse of the Moro peace process: disaster and opportunity
Roughly 300 people have been killed and over 650,000 displaced in more than two months of fighting between Philippine security forces and renegade Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters. The escalation of violence follows the Supreme Court's decision to block the implementation of a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain between the government and the MILF in August.
According to a report by Amnesty International released on Wednesday, the suspension of peace talks between the government and Moro rebels in Mindanao threatens the lives of "hundreds of thousands of civilians." Another report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights concludes that the collapse of the peace talks may provide an opportunity for both parties to address inherent flaws within the peace process. According to the report, the indigenous Lumad people of Mindanao, who never resorted to armed rebellion, were never included in the peace process with the Moros. If the MOA-AD had been signed on 5 August 2008, it would have meant the loss of at least one million hectares of Ancestral Domains belonging to these indigenous peoples. The non-inclusion is not the only a flaw in the peace process but constitutes a clear violation of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.
As a series of blasts rocked Assam, killing 64 and injuring over 282, the home ministry officials went into a huddle and the BJP did not waste any time raising the issue of illegal migration from Bangladesh.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil met National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan along with senior intelligence officials to discuss the situation. Sources said that it appeared to be the handiwork of banned terror outfit ULFA, which specialised in conducting simultaneous multiple blasts.
The BJP, condemning the blasts, said that they were the result of UPA government's vote-bank and appeasement politics. BJP's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani said that it once again highlighted the issue of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants in the country.
Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh charged, “it is a cumulative consequence of decades of electoral rape of the state.''
Addressing a joint press conference along with senior leaders Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, he said that ``unchecked illegal immigration has continued despite the highest court of the land calling it unconstitutional.'' He was referring to the striking down of the Illegal Migration (Determination by Tribunal) Act of 1983 by the Supreme Court.
The Court had held that the IMDT Act disabled the state and enabled the infiltrators. Jaswant Singh further said that ULFA in Assam and Naxals in Andhra Pradesh had been allowed by the Congress-led government to flourish. “The NDA government had driven out the ULFA members and leaders with the help of the King of Bhutan. But the organisation was revived by the Congress, which had an understanding with the banned outfit during the last elections,” he said.
Ruing “the complete lack of governance”, Shourie said that the ULFA in Assam and Naxals in Andhra, due to unconditional ceasefire by the UPA, got time to regroup, rearm and recoup.''
He said that most states with Congress-led governments like Maharashtra and Assam were burning and yet the Centre could not do anything about it.
In his characteristic deliberate drawl, Jaswant Singh said that while someone in the PMO kept looking up the Thesaurus to find new words, the home minister could not go beyond “condemning” the attack. He was referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that the anti-national powers had to be fought “dauntingly”. He called them “verbal inanities which are paralysingly inconsequential.”
CPI(M) demands action against saffron outfits
Condemning the use of terror as an "instrument of political mobilisation", the CPI(M) on Thursday demanded action against "Bajrang Dal and other RSS outfits" under the Unlawful Activities Act for their alleged involvement in "nurturing and promoting violent activities".
Referring to the recent arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, it said BJP leader L K Advani had sought to compare the Sadhvi and Nathuram Godse as he attempted "to desperately distance" the RSS-BJP from the recent arrests and claim that both were not members of RSS when they committed the crimes.
"The point here is not the technicality of being a current member. The point has to do with the venomous ideological indoctrination that the RSS and its affiliates undertake which nurtures and promotes such violent activity," party Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', he said the CPI(M), at the October 13 meeting of the National Integration Council, had referred to the alleged involvement of "Bajrang Dal or other RSS organisations in various bomb blasts across the country."
In this context, he referred to the 2003 blasts in Parbani, Jalna and Jalgaon in Maharashtra, the 2005 explosions in Mau district of Uttar Pradesh and the August 2008 blasts in Kanpur. "Internal security of our country can be strengthened only when all such cases are also probed impartially and with the same degree of intensity."
"Given this, action against the Bajrang Dal under the Unlawful Activities Act must be initiated," Yechury said.
Economic confidence drops to 15-yr-low: European Commission
Business and consumer confidence in the 15 nations that share the euro fell to a 15-year low in October, the European Commission said on
Thursday, as a credit crunch hits consumer spending and forces companies to shed jobs.
The data show that the euro area risks a recession and adds pressure on the European Central Bank to reduce borrowing costs again when it meets next week and on European governments to do more to ward off a long economic downturn.
The survey said that shoppers are far more worried about the economy meaning they are even less likely to spend heavily in coming months as they fear losing their jobs. Consumer confidence hit its lowest level since 1993.
Industry and construction also dropped but still remain above their worst-ever level recorded during the early 1990s downturn.
The EU's economic sentiment indicator for the euro area fell to 80.4 in October from 87.5 a month earlier. It measures confidence among consumers and among several business sectors-- industry, services, retail and construction.
Consumers across the 27-nation European Union expect unemployment to increase, the EU executive said. Industry and services managers also expect to employ fewer people while industry and construction companies said they saw sales prices falling.
Consumers see prices falling over the next year as inflation creeps back from record highs over the summer, it said. They said they believed their own financial situation would worsen over the next year and said they were less likely to make major purchases such as a new home or car in the near future.
Uma Bharati offers party ticket to Sadhvi Pragya!
The BJP on Thursday accused the UPA government of failing to combat terror, saying the serial blasts in Assam were symbolic of the sense of insecurity in the country!
The Marxist Stance on GORKHALAND Movement is no different from the mainstream politics!
The Himalayas as well as the Aboriginal bases are treated as TARGET PRACTICE FIELD WAR zones, Hunting Grounds for the HOUNDS and simple Killing Fields most safe! As these ares remain isolated from the Mainstream nation even after sixty years of Independence. Nationality issue, ironically make volatile the Mainstream Parts of the nation as it happens in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, Andhra and Bengal!
Meanwhile,The banned ULFA denied its involvement in the serial blasts that rocked Assam killing 61 people and injuring over 470 people.
"The ULFA is in no way involved in the blasts in Guwahati, Bongaigaon, Barpeta and Kokrajhar and we condemn the incidents," an e-mail statement signed by Aanjan Borthakur of the group's central publicity unit said.
The group also offered its deep condolences to the family members of those killed in the blasts and wished for the speedy recovery of the injured. The ULFA urged the authorities to ensure proper treatment of the injured. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and government spokesman Subhas Das had earlier claimed the hand of "anti-national extremist elements" in the blasts while Kamrup (Metro) Deputy Commissioner Prateek Hajela claimed the HuJI was involved in the serial blasts.
See, the casual attitude of the HOME Ministery!
A high-level central team comprising senior Home Ministry officials will visit Assam to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation arising out of serial blasts in the state.
Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta told PTI that an NSG team will also visit the spots of the serial blasts.
When asked about the nature of the explosives used, he said forensic experts were already examining the blasts sites.
On whether additional para-military forces would be sent to the state, he said there were enough forces already deployed there.
"We will retain them for some more time and probably not deploy them on poll duties (in six states)," he said.
When asked about who could be behind the blasts, he said it was too early to identify the group.
And review this tory about chinese link!
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is now looking to China for shelter following mounting pressure from Myanmar and Bangladesh with the outfit’s top commander Paresh Baruah now believed to be somewhere near the Myanmar-China border scouting for help to relocate its bases, intelligence officials said. Police and intelligence officials said there could be up to 50 ULFA militants now holed up in China’s Yunnan Province led by its ‘Lt’ Partha Jyoti Gogoi.
“We also have a report that ULFA’s commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah is now in a temporary base of the outfit located somewhere along the Myanmar-China border after he sneaked into the region from his permanent base in Bangladesh,” a senior intelligence official said on customary conditions of anonymity.
“ULFA is facing the heat from both Bangladesh and Myanmar in recent months and that could be the reason for the outfit to think of alternative bases,” the official said.
ULFA, a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland in Assam, has, of late, been facing heavy reverses - more than 100 rebels have been killed in anti-insurgency operations, while the outfit suffered a major setback in June after two of its potent striking units, the Alpha and the Charlie companies of the 28th battalion, declared a unilateral ceasefire with the government.
“Reports of ULFA setting up bases in China’s Yunnan Province cannot be ruled out given the fact that the outfit’s relation with most of the neighbouring countries is good,” Prabal Neog, pro-talk leader and former commander of ULFA’s 28th battalion, told IANS.
The ULFA team in China, led by Gogoi, is apparently being patronised by the Kachin National Organization (KNO), an ethnic armed group of Myanmar now having some bases in the Yunnan Province. Most of the 50 member ULFA rebels are from eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district.
“We had bases in Bhutan and Bangladesh, we had been to Nepal before, and then the Pakistani links are well known. In Myanmar we have our main camps and bases and so having links with China is definitely not impossible,” Neog said.
ULFA’s China linkages are, however, not new, but such things were always kept very secret. Paresh Baruah visited China in the 1980s, while ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa put out an appeal to the Chinese leadership on Dec 25, 2003 to provide safe passage to the rebels from Bhutan for temporary shelter in China.
Rajkhowa in his fax communication to the Chinese leadership said: “We have come under massive attack of Indo-Bhutan joint forces and our combatants have been forced to retreat up to the Sino-Bhutan border due to all out air and artillery campaigns”.
Beijing, however, turned down ULFA’s appeal.
“Logistically speaking it would have no impact on their military campaign by setting up bases in China as the distance would be immense from the Yunnan Province to Assam, probably about 40 to 50 days of trekking,” said Sunil Nath, a well-known writer and former publicity chief of the ULFA.
Nath surrendered before the authorities in 1991.
It is not that China or sources in China have always maintained a distance from Indian separatists. Indian insurgents had not only visited China in the past for help, but had received assistance from sources within the country.
Leader of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) Thuingaleng Muivah is on record having said the Naga rebels had earlier obtained arms from China.
“More than anything else, it would be a major boost to ULFA’s sagging morale if they manage to set up bases in China. They want to send a message probably that they can extend their base to as far as China,” said Wasbir Hussain, director of the Centre for Development and Peace Studies, a Guwahati-based think-tank.
And see this report!
– The security forces have recently come to know of a camp of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) just around five kilometres across the international border in Bangladesh following the arrests and surrender of a few cadres who came to Assam from that camp. Security sources said that the camp is located at Bakapura in Sherpur district of Bangladesh, which is just across the international border with Meghalaya. Sources revealed that according to information available, around a hundred to 150 cadres of the ULFA are staying in the camp. Though no senior leader of the ULFA stays in the camp, middle rung leaders of the militant group including Antu Chowdang, Pradyut Gohain and Drishti Rajkhowa are believed to be heading the camp. Sources also alleged that the ULFA must be receiving direct or indirect help from the DGFI, the intelligence agency of Bangladesh or from the Bangladesh Rifles as it would not have been possible for the militant group to run a camp so close to the international border.
Sources said that the senior leaders of the ULFA including the chairman of the outfit Arabinda Rajkhowa and the commander in chief Paresh Baruah also spend most of their time in Bangladesh, they usually stay in Dhaka and the security agencies do not have any report of them visiting the camp adjacent to the international border.
Sources pointed out that after the declaration of unilateral cease-fire by the A and C companies of the 28 battalion of the ULFA, the level of violence has come down in the upper Assam districts as the militants belonging to the B company of the battalion, who were entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out operations in the districts of Sivasagar and Jorhat, have not been able to move around freely.
According to information available with the security forces, around 150 cadres of the B company of the 28 battalion of the ULFA are still in the camps in Myanmar, but they are not in a position to come down freely because of operations by the security forces and also because of the fact that they are not keen on coming face to face with their former colleagues, who are on cease-fire.
Sources also claimed that the ULFA has not been able to carry out any major operation in recent months due to pressure from the security forces and also because of the fact that the cadre strength has come down drastically. The cadres who are outside the country in Bangladesh and Myanmar have not been able to come to Assam as freely as they did before. However, sources admitted that the militant outfit might continue efforts to trigger off blasts to create disturbance and the outfit made several such attempts in the run up to the Independence Day but fortunately the recovery of the explosives foiled their bid.
The first of the 13 bombs, suspected to have been planted by Bangladesh-based HuJI members, went off at around 11.30 AM under the Ganeshguri flyover near the high-security capital complex housing the Assembly building, followed by explosions at Paltan Bazar and Fancy Bazar in Guwahati.
Around the same time, bombs also went off in crowded market places of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Barpeta districts in lower Assam.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi put the toll at 61 dead and 470 injured. Of the six blasts in Guwahati, RDX was used in two of the explosions, he said adding a special task force was being set up to unearth the conspiracy behind the blasts.
Black smoke billowed from the Deputy Commissioner's Office housing the district courts, which bore the brunt of the attacks in Guwahati, as vehicles, including a number of cars, turned into mangled heaps of metal.
Police suspected that the bomb was planted in the court complex on a two-wheeler. At least 25 people were killed and 235 injured in the blasts in Guwahati where an indefinite curfew was clamped following protests by residents, who accused the police of delayed action.
INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES are ascribing the serial blasts that shook Assam Thursday morning (October 30) to United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) or Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HUJI), a Bangladesh based outfit, which has been behind a number of incidents in the country.
Opposition leader LK Advani ascribed them to be a government failure. He asserted that the attacks has proved United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government failure to provide security to the people.
Reacting to the serial blasts, which killed at least 48 people, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has asked the people to fight the terror unitedly and remain calm. He condemned the attacks as inhuman and said that people should come together to defeat the motives of the terrorists.
Commenting on the attacks, minister of state for Home, Shri Parkash Jaiswal, also said that involvement of ULFA and HUJI was possible, but refused to take any stand on the issue. As has been the wont of the UPA government, the minister termed the attacks as routine and said that this happens every second month in the country. He assured thorough investigation into the attack.
Advani said that these blasts have added to the insecurity in the country and could have been the handiwork of the illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, in Guwahati tension prevailed as strong crowds thronged the streets and shouted slogans against government. People targeted fire brigade and ambulances, which had come for the rescue operations.
Other Articles by Abhishek Behl, Merinews
Curfew clamped in Guwahati, 48 killed in blasts
11 blasts in 15 minutes rip Assam, 26 killed
20 feared killed as serial blasts rock Assam
Firing in Mumbai bus, one killed
Delhi Giants fall short by 5 runs, Chennai wins
more >> Government officials were not allowed to come near the blast site till police intervened and prohibitory orders were forced by the administration.
People alleged that police reached the blast site almost one hour late and it was only the local people, who came to the rescue of the people immediately after the explosions.
Similar tension was witnessed in all areas of Guwahati, where people have been seething with anger as their dear ones battle for life in the Guwahati Medical College (GMC). At least 26 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds were injured when the blasts ripped apart the north eastern state.
Experts meanwhile said that it was likely that HUJI or a similar outfit could be behind the attacks rather than ULFA. The Assamese outfit has been under constant pressure of late and it was difficult for the organisation to execute attacks on such a large scale and in such a lethal manner, they added.
However, in a confirm report a bomb was found in scooter and has been defused.
While 19 were killed and 64 injured in Kokrajhar, 12 died in Barpeta where 46 others were wounded. Five people were injured in Bongaigaon, said Principal Secretary (Home) Subhash Das.
A red alert has been sounded across the state and army has also been put on alert in view of the security situation, he said after Gogoi held a review meeting with his cabinet colleagues and top officials.
Special task force to identify culprits: Gogoi
The Assam government will soon constitute a special task force to identify the culprits behind Thursday's blasts.
Terming the violence as "very serious", Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi told reporters that "if necessary, help will be taken from experts outside the state and the conspiracy angle, if any, will be probed".
Urging the people and the political parties to extend cooperation at this hour, Gogoi said "this is a warning for us to be extra cautious in future".
The Chief Minister said earlier only a few areas in the north eastern region was insurgency affected but of late due to its border with other countries militancy has spread to various parts states.
The Chief Minister said the seriously injured will be taken outside the state for treatment.
He said the army and para military forces have been alerted and although the people got agitated after the blasts the situation was now under control and curfew which was imposed during the day has been lifted from 5.30 pm.
International border sealed, security beefed up in Meghalaya
Security along the Assam-Meghalaya boundary has been put on high alert while the Indo-Bangladesh border sealed as an alert was sounded across the north east region following serial blasts in Assam that killed 56 people.
The police top brass in Meghalaya held an emergency meeting this afternoon to review the state's security scenario and discuss measures to prevent untoward incidents in the aftermath of the violence in the neighbouring state.
"We have ordered the security forces to check all vehicles, especially those coming from Assam," IG (SB) S B Singh said after the meeting.
Random check points have been put up along all roads connecting the state with Assam and a manhunt launched to nab the perpetrators of the blasts, a security source said.
The Assam boundary has been virtually sealed as indefinite curfew has been imposed in Guwahati and no vehicle from Meghalaya is allowed to enter the neighbouring state.
Police sources said vigil along the Assam boundary has been enhanced and police posts along the boundary asked to intensify patrolling and frisking to prevent movement of anti-national elements.
President, PM condemn Assam serial blasts
President, Vice President and the Prime Minister on Thursday strongly condemned the serial blasts that ripped through Assam claiming several lives and said people should stand united to defeat the designs of terrorists.
"There is no place for violence in our society. At this moment all of us should stand united against divisive forces in the country," President Pratibha Patil said in a message.
Observing that such terrorist acts coinciding with the festive season were intended to disturb social harmony, Vice President Hamid Ansari urged all citizens to unite in combating this scourge.
In his message, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said such barbaric acts targeting innocent men, women and children only highlight the desperation and cowardice of those responsible.
Offering his condolences to the families of those killed and sympathies to those injured in the blasts, he hoped that people would rise unitedly against these attempts to disturb peace and harmony and to destroy the social fabric.
"We will take all possible steps to maintain peace and bring the perpetrators of such acts to justice," the Prime Minister said.
Meanwhile, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee expressed sorrow at the loss of lives in the serial blasts and offered his sympathies for the families of the bereaved.
"I hope that such acts do not result in disturbing peace in the region, which is in the interest of the people of the country as a whole," Chatterjee said.
He also wished speedy and complete recovery of those injured.
'Jehadi elements behind blasts'
With militant outfit ULFA denying its involvement in Thursday's serial blasts in Assam, the police said it was the handiwork of jehadi outfits, including Bangladesh-based HUJI.
"The needle of suspicion points to jehadi outfits who are behind subversive activities in the state," IGP (Special Branch) Khagen Sharma told PTI here.
The jehadi elements, including Bangladesh-based HUJI, could be working in groups or individually, the senior police official said the modus operandi pointed to their involvement.
"While investigation will go on, the police have been zeroing in on Islamic fundamentalist forces which of late have been active in the state and the region," he said.
Six suspected jehadi militants were recently killed by the security forces in Dhubri district.
Pointing out that several ISI-backed militants have been arrested in the past, Sharma said their interrogation revealed that their activity was on the rise.
The police official, however, denied there was intelligence failure on the part of the authorities. Kamrup (Metro) Deputy Commissioner Prateek Hajela also suspected the involvement of HUJI militants.
Chronology of recent bomb blasts in India
Following is the Chronology of some recent major bomb blasts in the country:
September 2008: Six serial blasts occurred in Delhi, killing 15 people and injuring more than 50.
July 2008: Nine explosions in Bangalore create terror killing two persons and injuring twelve.
May 2008: Eight serial blasts rocked Jaipur in a span of 12 minutes leaving 65 people dead and over 150 injured.
October 2007: 2 persons killed in a blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan in Rajasthan.
August 2007: 30 people dead, 60 hurt in Hyderabad 'terror' strike.
May 2007: A bomb at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.
February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode aboard a train from India to Pakistan, burning to death at least 66 passengers, most of them Pakistanis.
September 2006: 30 people dead and 100 injured in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon.
July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's local trains left over 200 people dead and 700 others injured.
March 2006: Twin blasts at a railway station and a temple in Varanasi killed 20 people.
October 2005: Three bombs placed in busy New Delhi markets a day before Diwali killed 62 people.
Army allows cops to quiz its officer in Malegaon blast
With media speculating on the role of the officer in the blasts during Ramzan that killed six Muslims, the army in a press release today announced "full cooperation" to the police and facilitate his questioning.
"If she (Pragya) wishes, our party will field her from any seat in Madhya Pradesh against the BJP," BJS National Secretary Inder Prajapat told reporters in Indore.
The six arrested have been identified as Vikas Dattu Waghmare (26), Manoj Ramdas Palande (30), Avinash Narhari Thombre (24), Ajay Dilip Hadap (18), Sanjay Hadap (18) and Ketan Kashinath Hadap (23), Additional Director General of Police (GRP) K P Raghuvanshi said.
Stop attacks on North Indians, Maya to Maha Govt
In the wake of killing of a youth hailing from Uttar Pradesh in Mumbai, Chief Minister Mayawati asked the Centre and Maharashtra government to take immediate action to stop attacks on North Indians, saying they have ‘failed’ to prevent such incidents.
"The Centre and Maharashtra government should initiate immediate measures to check attack on North Indians in Maharashtra," Mayawati said in a letter shot off to the Union government and Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Inflation not a serious concern as two months ago: Montek
Observing that inflation is not serious problem now, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Thursday said the aim should be on high growth track of nine per cent.
India should continue civil nuke cooperation: Kakodkar
It is time the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha engages itself in responsible politics, writes Vivek Chhetri
Dreams unto reality
The demand for a separate state is being heard loudly again all over the Darjeeling hills for more than a year now. But the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, the party at the forefront of the movement, seems to have landed itself in a quagmire now by practising a kind of politics that discards the ground realities. One year into the movement, it is time for the Morcha to reassess it programmes and strategies to pull off something beyond symbolic victories.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081030/jsp/opinion/story_10001146.jsp
Ghosts Of 9/11: Muslim Nationality Movements or Pan-Islamic Jihad?
Countercurrents.org
The Palestinian struggle is avowedly nationalist in character, seeking a homeland for Palestinians, denied to them by an expansionist Israeli State. It is largely a struggle between two national identities-Israelis and Palestinians-which claim the same territory. Though Al-Qaeda leaders like, bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahri etc. have made many rhetorical pronouncements that harp on the theme of 'liberating Muslim homelands' like Palestine, the Palestinian leadership including that of Hamas -an organization with strong Islamic moorings- have firmly dissociated themselves from these rhetorical declarations of the so called Pan-Islamic 'Jihad'.
Kashmir existed as an independent kingdom until 1947 when the nation-states of India and Pakistan were created in August 1947 by a division of 'British India'. India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir in late 1947, which left Kashmir divided and under the control of the two countries. In both parts of Kashmir a historic movement for self-determination has been going on since the 1950s. The U.N resolutions on Kashmir -determined by the State centric positions of India and Pakistan -rendered only two possible political choices for Kashmiris viz. accession with India or accession with Pakistan. Contrary to Kashmiri popular aspirations - espoused by Plebiscite Front of "Pakistan-administered-Kashmir" and the one led by Afzal Beigh in Indian-administered-Kashmir -, which sought an independent nation-state, the option of an Independent Kashmir was not included in the U.N resolutions. Internationally Kashmir continued and still continues to be largely viewed as a territorial-ideological dispute between India and Pakistan. Kashmiri nationalism got a partial international recognition only after the Kashmiri mass uprising of 90s.
Riding the wave of the 'war on terror', India like the United States passed draconian anti terror ordinances in the quick aftermath of 9/11. India tried to portray the Dec 13, 2001 attack on her parliament as her version of 9/11 and observed a day 'against world terrorism'. India tried to lump the insurgency in Kashmir with the Al-Qaeda International. Kashmiri separatist leadership denied it as a gross distortion of the historic Kashmiri struggle of self-determination. Syed Salahuddin, commander of largest Kashmiri insurgent group, Hizbul Mujahidin and chairman of the United Jehad Council, repeatedly distanced the armed struggle in Kashmir from the so called pan-Islamic 'Jihad' of Al-Qaeda. Kashmiri separatist leaders like Yaseen Malik of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) have also publicly stated that 'Al-Qaeda is unwelcome in Kashmir'.
http://www.countercurrents.org/ahmad290708.htm
219
The “Northeast,” seen as India’s “Mongoloid fringe,”1 was
one of the last areas to be taken over by the British in the subcontinent.
Having conquered almost the whole of it by the first quarter of
the nineteenth century, the British turned to secure the frontiers of
their Indian Empire from the perceived threats of Russian expansion
in Central Asia and from the westward surge of the Burmese Empire.
The debacle in Afghanistan forced them to leave it as a useful buffer
between Tsarist Central Asia and British India, but the defeat of the
Burmese army encouraged them to take over the Northeast of India.
The British decided on limited administration of the Northeast.
The Inner Line Regulations ensured that the hill regions beyond the
plains of Assam were largely left to their traditional chiefs once they
accepted British suzerainty. The princely kingdoms of Tripura and
Manipur were treated as dependencies, remote-controlled by political
10
SUBIR BHAUMIK
Ethnicity, Ideology and Religion:
Separatist Movements in India’s Northeast
1. Nandita Haksar, India’s leading human rights lawyer known for her campaign
against excesses by security forces in northeast India, says “the northeast is very distinct
from the rest of India essentially because of race.” See Haksar, “Movement of
Self Assertion in the Northeast,” in Madhushree Dutta, Flavia Agnes and Neera
Adarkar, eds., The Nation, the State and Indian Identity (Kolkata: Stree, 1996).
220 SUBIR BHAUMIK
agents but not administered on a day-to-day basis. For the British, the
Northeast remained a frontier, never a constituent region of the
empire.2 Only Assam was integrated, its rich tea plantations and oilfields,
its agricultural output and potential for industries providing
enough justification for direct administrative control.
Even in neighboring Burma, the British followed the same policy.
Lower Burma was administered directly from Kolkata, but the British
chose to extend “limited administration” to the hill regions of Upper
Burma. A rich plain like Bengal, Assam or Lower Burma, thriving on
settled agriculture, rich in minerals and oil, was worth direct control
despite native resistance. But a remote and difficult hill region was
better left to political agents, spies and missionaries to closely watch
rivals across strategic frontiers and convert the tribesmen to
Christianity to secure their loyalty toward the empire. If the plains fed
the economic sinews of the empire, the hills played the buffer against
rivals in the Great Game and provided fighters for the colonial army.
But though northeast India and Upper Burma remained a partially
administered frontier, some senior British officials, in the years before
the final withdrawal, proposed to integrate these two hill regions and
develop it as a “Crown Colony” to ensure a limited but strategic presence
in rimland Asia.3 Due to strong nationalist opposition in both
India and Burma, the Crown Colony plan failed to materialize.
Guerrilla War in Rainbow Country
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF THE BRITISH, no empire based in mainland
India had controlled any part of what now makes up the country’s
Northeast. Migration from the Indian mainland was limited to
preachers and teachers, traders and soldiers of fortune. Mainland cultural
influence was also limited to Assam, Manipur and Tripura, where
the kings adopted variants of Hinduism as the state religion. The
uninterrupted freedom from mainland conquest for a great length of
2. Alexander Mackenzie first articulated the concept of a “northeast” frontier. See
Mackenzie, History of the Relations of the Government with the Hill Tribes of the Northeast
Frontier of Bengal (1884), reprinted as the Northeast Frontier of India (Delhi: Mittal
Publishers, 1979).
3. J. P. Mills in 1942–43 first proposed the “unification of the hill regions of
Northeast India and Upper Burma.” Later Reginald Coupland fine-tuned the proposal
that the area should be administered as a “Crown Colony” even after the British
withdrawal from the subcontinent. See Coupland, The Constitutional Problems of India,
Part 3 (London: Oxford University Press, 1944).
ETHNICITY, IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION: SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS IN 221
INDIA’S NORTHEAST
history, coupled with the region’s racial distinctiveness, gave its people
a sense of being different from those in mainland India. So, India’s
northeast territories “look less and less India and more and more like
the highland societies of Southeast Asia.”4
After Partition, the 225,000-square-kilometer region remains sandwiched
between Chinese-Tibet, Burma, Bangladesh and Bhutan,
linked to the Indian mainland by a tenuous 21-kilometer wide “Siliguri
Corridor.” It is a polyglot region, its ethnic mosaic as diverse as the rest
of the country. Of the 5,633 communities listed by the “People of
India” project, 635 were categorized as tribals, of which 213 were
found in the northeast Indian states. This project also listed 325 languages
—of which 175 belonging to the Tibeto-Burman and the Mon-
Khmer family were found in northeast India. Some of the bigger
tribes, such as the Nagas, number around one million—the smallest,
such as the Mates of Manipur (population: eight thousand), have just
a few thousand left.5 Even the bigger tribes are often mere generic
identities rather than nationalities, without a common language (as in
the case of the Nagas), held together more in opposition to the Indian
nation-state than by an organic growth of national consciousness.
All of India’s major religions are practiced here, with Christianity
dominating the hills and Hinduism and Islam dominating the plains.
Animistic faiths and Lamaist sects are also found in the region.
Assamese and Bengali speakers are the most numerous—but linguistic
preferences in the region have often changed due to political considerations
and have sometimes concealed ethnic and religious divisions.
In Assam, the migrant Muslim peasantry of Bengali origin
chose to register as Assamese speakers during every census after
Independence to melt into the local milieu. The Assamese also coopted
Muslim migrants as “Na-Asasimyas” or neo-Assamese—if
only to ensure a predominant position of Assamese language in the
state; in such situations linguistic predominance is what ethnic domination
is often built on. But when these Muslims were targeted by the
Assamese on a large scale during the 1983 riots, many of them started
registering as Bengali speakers, leading to a decrease in the number of
Assamese speakers in the 1991 and 2001 Census.
4. Peter Kunstadter, Highland Societies of Southeast Asia (New York: Alfred Knopf,
1967).
5. Subir Bhaumik, “Negotiating Access: Northeast India,” Refugee Survey Quarterly
19, no. 2 (2000).
222 SUBIR BHAUMIK
In the pre-British era, the population flow into what is now northeast
India almost wholly originated from the east. Being closer to the
highlands of Burma and southwestern China than to the power centers
of the Indian mainland, this region was exposed to a constant
flow of tribes and nationalities belonging to the Tibeto-Burman or
the Mon-Khmer stock, one settling down only to be overrun by the
subsequent wave. The incomplete process of racial assimilation, the
frequency of fresh migrations and the restrictive nature of empirebuilding
in the region account for its current ethnic diversity.
But the direction of the population flow changed with the advent
of the British. The colonial masters brought peasants and agricultural
laborers, teachers and clerks from neighboring Bengal and Bihar to
open up Assam’s economy. The trickle became a tide, and the sweep
was soon to cover states like Tripura, where the Manikya kings offered
Bengali farmers “jungle-avadi” or forest clearance leases to popularize
settled agriculture that would, in turn, increase the revenue.6 The
hill regions were protected by the Inner Line Regulations; the plains
and the Princely domains were not. The steady population flow from
mainland India, particularly from undivided Bengal, accentuated the
ethnic and religious diversity and introduced a nativist-outsider element
to the simmering conflict.7
The Partition led to a rise in the flow of refugees and migrants from
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Tripura’s demography changed qualitatively
in two decades, with the Bengalis becoming a clear majority.
The pace of demographic change was slightly slower in Assam than in
Tripura, but it was pronounced enough to upset the “sons of the soil,”
provoking both armed and unarmed protest movements. The fear that
other northeastern states would “go the Tripura way” has weighed
heavily on indigenous peoples and early settlers throughout the
Northeast and provoked the more militant of them to take up arms.8
6. J. B. Ganguly, “The Problem of Tribal Landlessness in Tripura,” in B. B. Datta
and M. N. Karna, eds., Land Relations in Northeast India (Delhi: Peoples Publishing
House, 1987).
7. See Myron Weiner, Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1978); Sajal Nag, Roots of Ethnic Conflict: Nationalities
Question in Northeast India (Delhi: Manohar, 1990).
8. Subodh Debbarma, vice-president of the Tribal Students Federation (TSF) of
Tripura, told a news conference in Guwahati, Assam, that “Assam would soon
become another Tripura, where the sons of the soil have become aliens within half a
century.” Reported in Sentinel daily newspaper (Guwahati), 3 June 2002.
ETHNICITY, IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION: SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS IN 223
INDIA’S NORTHEAST
This paper examines the complex interplay of ethnicity, ideology
and religious identity in shaping the insurgent movements in northeast
India and examines their external linkages. The paper explores
the degree to which these factors have promoted or restricted the
growth of local nationalisms that could sustain the separatist movements
in a position of challenge to the Indian nation-state.
Ethnicity, Guerrilla Warfare and the “Foreign Hand”
A TRADITION OF ARMED RESISTANCE to invaders developed in the
region even before the British came. The Ahom kings fought back the
Mughals, the Tripura kings fought back the Bengal sultans, but when
the British went into the Northeast, they encountered fierce resistance
in the Naga and the Mizo (then Lushai) hill regions in Manipur and in
what is now Meghalaya. The Naga and the Mizo tribesmen resorted
to guerrilla war, holding up much stronger British forces by grit and
ingenious use of the terrain until, in some places of the Mizo hills,
entire villages were “populated only by widows.”9
After the British left, the Indian nation-state faced uprisings in
Tripura almost immediately after Independence and in the Naga Hills
since the mid-fifties. The Communists, who led the tribal uprising in
Tripura, called off armed struggle in the early fifties and joined
Indian-style electoral politics. But since the 1980 ethnic riots, Tripura
has witnessed periodic bouts of tribal militancy, with the Bengali
refugee population its main target. The Naga uprising, the strongest
ethnic insurrection in northeast India, has been weakened by repeated
splits on tribal lines. Talks between the Indian government and the
stronger faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN), started in 1997, are continuing, but a possible resumption of
Naga insurgency remains a worst-case scenario for Delhi in the
Northeast.
Armed uprisings erupted in the Mizo Hills following a famine in
1966. A year later, guerrilla bands became active in Manipur and
Tripura. Since most of these rebel groups found safe bases, weapons
and training in what was then East Pakistan, the defeat of the
Pakistani armed forces in 1971 adversely affected the rebels from
northeast India. For nearly seven years, they were deprived of a major
9. Suhas Chatterjee, Mizoram under the British Rule (Delhi: Mittal Publishers, 1985).
224 SUBIR BHAUMIK
staging post in a contiguous foreign nation. China, which trained and
armed several batches of Naga, Mizo and Meitei since 1966, had
stopped help by the early 1980s. By then, however, Bangladesh’s military
rulers, foisted to power by the bloody coup that killed the country’s
founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, had revived the Pakistani policy
of sheltering, arming and training rebel groups from northeast
India. Almost all the separatist groups in the Northeast—Nagas,
Mizos, Meiteis, Tripuris, and now even those from Meghalaya—have
subsequently received shelter and support in Bangladesh. On the
other hand, Indian agencies used the Northeast to arm and train, support
and shelter the Bengali guerrillas against Pakistan in 1971 and
then the tribal insurgents from Chittagong Hill Tracts against
Bangladesh.10
Since the 1980s, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has
also used Bangladesh to establish contact with some of the rebel
groups from Northeast India. A few of them have received
weapons, specialized training in explosives and sabotage, and even
funds. Surrendered insurgents have said the ISI has encouraged
them to take on economic targets such as oil refineries and depots,
gas pipelines, rail tracks and road bridges.11 Burma and Bhutan have
also been used as sanctuaries by some of these rebel groups but
there is little evidence of official patronage from governments of
those countries. There are some unconfirmed reports of Chinese
assistance to the NSCN, the Meitei rebel groups and the United
Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).12
10. For details of Chinese and Pakistani and then Bangladeshi support to separatist
groups from northeast India, see Bhaumik, Insurgent Crossfire: Northeast India (Delhi:
Lancers, 1996). Also see Sanjoy Hazarika, Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace
from India’s Northeast (Delhi: Viking, 1994).
11. Munim Nobis, former “foreign secretary” of ULFA, quoted in Hazarika,
Strangers of the Mist. The Group of Ministers (GOM) report in India on security, intelligence
and border management categorically mentions use of Bangladesh territory
by the ISI to “destabilize” India’s northeastern region. Report published in 2000.
12. Surrendered ULFA leader Luit Deuri told this writer in a BBC interview on 19
January 2001 that a Chinese agency codenamed “Blackhouse” had supplied them
huge consignments of weapons through Bhutanese territory. Much of the weapons
the NSCN initially procured from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia between 1988 and
1995 are believed to have been routed to it by the Chinese agencies, the use of the
surrogate designed to conceal the origin of the supply. Recent seizures of a huge
quantity of weapons from the Meitei rebel groups by the Burmese army in
November 2001 from around Tamu—nearly 1,600 pieces of automatic weapons—
have prompted speculations about the supply from January 1990.
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INDIA’S NORTHEAST
By the early 1980s, the whole region was gripped by large-scale violence.
There were fierce riots in Tripura and Assam. Separatist movements
intensified in Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur, later spreading
to both Assam and Tripura. India’s young Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi took the initiative to arrive at settlements with the militant
students of Assam, the separatist Mizo National Front (MNF) and
the Tribal National Volunteers of Tripura. But other insurgencies
continued and new ones emerged. If the separatist movements such
as those of the Nagas and the Mizos had challenged federal authority,
the recent insurgencies of the Bodos, the Hmars, the Karbis and
the Dimasas directly confront the regional power centers—the new
states of Northeast. If the Nagas and the Mizos fought for a separate
country and finally settled for a separate state within India, the smaller
ethnicities such as the Bodos or the Hmars fight for autonomous
homelands they want carved out of the states such as Assam and
Mizoram.
Very often in the Northeast, a negotiated settlement with a separatist
movement has opened the ethnic fissures within it. The Hmars,
the Maras and the Lais fought shoulder to shoulder with the Lushais
against the Indian security forces during the twenty years of insurgency
led by the MNF. But twenty years of bonding through the
shared experience of guerrilla warfare failed to develop a greater
“Mizo” identity. The Bodos, the Karbis and the Dimasas all joined the
Assam movement to expel “foreigners” and “infiltrators.” But after
settlements with the Indian government, they felt the Assamese “had
taken the cake and left us the crumbs.”13 The result: fresh agitations,
often sliding into violent insurgencies, spearheaded by smaller ethnicities
demanding separate homelands. The ethnic imbalance in powersharing
has often caused retribalization, which has had its own cascading
effect in restricting the growth of local nationalisms that could
challenge the Indian state.14
13. The late Upendranath Brahma (former president of the All Bodo Students
Union), interview by author, Agartala, 16 April 1988. Bhaumik analyzed this phenomenon
of minor tribes and clans challenging the preponderance of the bigger ones in
“Northeast India: The Second Ethnic Explosion” (paper presented at the Queen
Elizabeth House, Oxford University, 22 January 1990).
14. Bhaumik, “Northeast: Evolution of a Post-Colonial Region” in Partha
Chatterjee, ed., Wages of Freedom: Fifty Years of the Indian Nation-State (Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1998).
226 SUBIR BHAUMIK
After fighting India for forty years, Naga “nationalism” remains an
incomplete process, its growth retarded by at least three major splits
within the separatist movement, mostly along tribal lines. Even a
China-trained leader like Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur
state, has no hesitation branding Angamis as “reactionary traitors”
and his own tribe, the Tangkhuls—who form the bulk of the
NSCN—as “revolutionary patriots.”15 On the other hand, the
Tangkhuls who dominate the NSCN are seen in the Nagaland state as
“Kaccha Nagas” (impure Nagas).16 The trend has been no different
in Mizoram or Manipur. The Kuki demand for a separate homeland
that pitted them against the Nagas has driven some smaller clans away
from them and led to the emergence of a separate “Zomi” identity.
Tribes such as the Paites prefer to be called “Zomis” and their militias
have sided with the NSCN against the Kuki militant groups. The
Hmars, Lais and the Maras have joined the Chakmas and the Reangs
to challenge the Mizos.
In Tripura, the Mizos in the northern Jampui hills demand a
regional council within the Tribal Areas Autonomous Council of
Tripura to preserve their “distinct identity,” whereas their ethnic kinsmen
in Mizoram are wary of similar demands by smaller ethnicities.
The Reangs in Tripura resent attempts by the Tripuris to impose the
Kokborok language on them. And they look back at the brutal suppression
of Reang rebellions by the Tripuri kings as “evidence of ethnic
domination that cannot be accepted anymore.”17 These intratribal
tensions have weakened efforts to promote a compact “Borok”
or tribal identity against perceived Bengali domination.
India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, excluded the
Northeast from the process of linguistic reorganization that Indian
states were subjected to in the mid-fifties. Stress on language and ethnicity,
he reckoned, would open a Pandora’s box for a remote, sensitive
region such as the Northeast. So he let the hill regions stay with
15. Thuingaleng Muivah (NSCN’s general secretary), “Polarisation,” NSCN document,
published from Oking (headquarters), 1985.
16. Bhaumik, Nagas, India and the Northeast (London: Minority Rights Group, 1994).
17. Dhananjoy Reang (founder of the NLFT), interview by author, Kumaritilla,
Agartala, 16 October 1999. Reang was earlier vice president of the Tribal National
Volunteers (TNV) and a pioneer in the tribal guerrilla movements of Tripura. But
now he bitterly complains of how Reangs have been intimidated, their women raped
and men killed by the NLFT.
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INDIA’S NORTHEAST
Assam, and the two former princely states—Manipur and Tripura—
were administered as Union Territories from Delhi. But the Naga
insurrection forced Delhi to create the Nagaland state to take the
steam out of the armed uprising. Once a million Nagas got a separate
state, other ethnicities, some more populous than the Nagas, were to
make similar demands. When refused, they would do what the Nagas
did—challenge the Indian state with arms.
In the five decades after Partition, the Northeast has been India’s
most sustained insurgency theater. The intensity and the focus of the
movements have changed over the years, and a number of the movements
have been co-opted by the Indian state through power-sharing
arrangements. But the call to arms has remained a popular option
with the battling ethnicities of the Northeast—either in challenging
Delhi or while settling scores among themselves. And quite often, a
number of armed movements in the region have used separatist rhetoric,
despite being essentially autonomist or nativist in character,
merely to attract attention in Delhi.18
Once India carved out the state of Nagaland in 1963, Assam’s role
as a sub-regional hegemon was threatened, its position as India’s political
subcontractor in the Northeast destined to end. Within a decade
of the creation of the Nagaland state, Delhi had to affect a political
reorganization of the whole region, through which three new administrative
units were formed. These three became full-fledged states in
the 1980s, as India desperately sought to control violent ethnic insurgencies
in the area. On the other hand, the breakup of Assam not only
produced fresh demands for ethnic homelands within what remained
of it, but it also drove a section of the ethnic Assamese to insurgency.
With the hills gone, the Assamese turned to their valleys to find they
were fast becoming a minority there. The anti-foreigner movement
rocked Assam between 1979 and 1985 and led to large-scale, free-forall
types of ethnic riots. The ULFA, now the leading separatist organization
in Assam, was born out of this movement. Its initial credo was
ethnic cleansing—it sought by the force of arms to drive the “foreigners”
(read: migrants from Bangladesh) out of Assam.
18. TNV fought for an “independent Tripura” but came to a settlement with Delhi
in 1988 after it agreed to reserve a mere three additional legislative assembly seats for
tribals. Such instances of using “secessionism” more as rhetoric than as a matter of
conviction abound in the Northeast.
228 SUBIR BHAUMIK
But over time, the ULFA’s politics has changed. Sheltered in
Bangladesh, Burma and Bhutan, and having to face the military might
of the Indian state, the ULFA has denounced the Assam movement
as “one that was led by juveniles, who failed to understand that migration
per se was not bad and had helped many countries like the U.S.A.
to become what they are today.” The ULFA says that the Bengalis—
Hindus and Muslims alike—have “immensely contributed to Assam”
and “those of them who feel themselves as part of Assam should be
treated as its legitimate dwellers.”19 It is difficult to ascertain how
much of this policy shift—projecting itself as the “representative of
the Asombashis” (dwellers of Assam) rather than the Asomiyas
(Assamese)—stems from tactical considerations such as seeking shelter
in Bangladesh and gaining the support of Assam’s huge Bengali
population, and how much of it is a genuine attempt to rise above the
ethnic considerations to forge a secular, multi-ethnic identity to fight
Delhi.
But the ULFA is being pragmatic only in trying to project territory
and a multi-ethnic credo as the basis for a future independent Assam.
It is only acknowledging the polyglot nature of the state of Assam—
and the rest of the region—despite its broad racial difference with the
Indian mainland. It is seeking to restore the multi-ethnic and assimilative
nature of the Assamese nationality formation process, which was
ruptured by racial-linguistic chauvinism of the upper-caste Assamese
power-holder elites in the 1960s, as a result of which tribe after tribe
exercised the exit option from Assam, fueling the demands of an
ever-increasing number of ethnicity-based states in northeast India.
Significantly, though the ULFA has targeted Hindi-speaking populations
for large-scale attacks after 1990, it has avoided any attack on
Bengalis, Nepalis or tribal groups that it sees as potential allies in the
struggle against “Indian colonialism.” The Hindi speakers have been
seen as “Indian populations supportive of the colonial rule.”20 But its
growing lack of faith in ethnicity as the basis for its political militancy
stems from a realization that there could be no “pure ethnic homeland”
in Assam or anywhere else in northeast India. A broad-based
19. Central Publicity Department, “Probojon Loi” (Regarding Infiltration), document
issued by the Central Publicity Department (ULFA, 1992).
20. The Assam Tiger Force (ATF) claimed responsibility for attacks on the Hindi
speakers in Assam, but Assam police say it is certain the ATF was a ULFA front.
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INDIA’S NORTHEAST
Assamese nationalism, unless it caters to the distinct ethnic aspirations
of the tribes and other communities in Assam, is a non-starter.
The ULFA therefore, shrewdly enough, projects a future independent
Assam as a federal Assam, where Bodo, Karbi, Dimasa, Rabha,
Lalung or Mishing, or even Bengali homelands can exist, so long as the
“basic values of Assamese society and culture are accepted.”21 A security
adviser to the Assam government describes this as “a clever ploy
to broaden the support base of the ULFA insurgency against India.”22
But Assam’s political leadership now talks the same language, of the
need to accept the polyglot character of Assam, and of satisfying the
aspirations of the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, if not for
anything else, only to stave off another breakup of the state.23
So, though ethnicity has been the mainstay of separatist movements
and often formed the basis for the creation of political-administrative
units in northeast India, its self-corrosive propensities have restricted
the growth of local nationalisms strong enough to confront Delhi.
Meghalaya came into being as a tribal state; today the three major
tribes, Khasis, Jaintias and Garos, fight for the spoils of political
office on ethnic lines, while some militant organizations such as the
Achik National Volunteer Council are fighting for a separate state for
the Garos. Mizoram has problems with its ethnic minorities. The
Reang and Chakma tribes complain of ethnic and religious persecution
and allege that the dominant Mizos, almost wholly Christian,
want to convert them to Christianity and the Mizo way of life. The
Lais and Maras want to join the Reangs and the Chakmas to form a
separate unit, a Union Territory, which they want to be administered
from the Centre.24 The Naga-Kuki clashes throughout northeast
India that left hundreds dead in the 1980s and 1990s raised the
specter of Bosnia or Kosovo, of how conflicting homeland demands
could lead to ethnic cleansing in pursuit of the impossible—creation
of “pure ethnic states.”
21. Freedom, ULFA’s weekly e-newsletter, 25 May 2001.
22. Jaideep Saikia (Security Advisor to Government of Assam), Mukhomukhi (Faceto-
Face), a chat show hosted on Doordarshan’s Seventh Channel (Kolkata), Rainbow
Productions, 17 February 2002.
23. Pradyut Bordoloi (Assam’s Minister of State for Home), interview by author,
BBC World Service, 29 March 2002. Bordoloi described Assam as a “multi-racial, multiethnic,
multi-lingual and a multi-religious entity.”
24. Memorandum jointly submitted by the Lai, Mara and Chakma district councils
to the Indian government on 17 August 2000.
230 SUBIR BHAUMIK
Independence or the Indian Revolution?
IN SOME PARTS of what became India’s Northeast, Communist parties
subtly articulated ethnic issues to create a support base among the
indigenous tribespeople. In Tripura, the Communists played on the
tribal’s sense of loss and marginalization following the end of sovereign
princely rule and the kingdom’s merger with India. Having first
secured popularity in the tribal areas through a powerful literacy
movement (Jana Shiksha or Mass Literacy), the Communist Party of
India (CPI) absorbed into its fold the main tribal organization, Gana
Mukti Parishad, at the peak of its nationwide armed struggle in 1948.
The CPI adopted the Parishad’s political program as its own on questions
of tribal rights, loss of tribal lands and the threat to the distinctive
social organization of the tribespeople but avoided demanding
secession. Hundreds of Parishad activists and leaders turned into
Communist guerrillas and fought “for the Indian revolution” rather
than for an independent homeland like the Nagas.25
But when the CPI gave up armed struggle and purged those advocating
the “adventurist line,” the tribal guerrillas in the Communist
force, Shanti Sena (Peace Army), gave up their weapons and returned
to normal life. And taking advantage of the situation, the Congressdominated
state administration started resettling the newly arrived
Bengali migrants in large numbers in the tribal-compact areas of
Tripura. Since the tribespeople were largely supportive of the
Communists, the Congress wanted to alter the demographic profile of
the constituencies by promoting the organized rehabilitation of the
Bengali migrants. It did help the Congress—it won both the parliament
seats in 1967 after losing them to the Communists in three successive
elections—but as the tribals lost out in the number’s game,
they lost faith in the Communist party and began to turn to militant
ethnic politics.26
Having first manipulated ethnic concerns to build up a party
nucleus and political base, the Communists succumbed to electoral
concerns in Tripura. With other tribal parties and insurgent organizations
surfacing to articulate the ethnic issues, the Communists have
25. For details on the Communist uprising in Tripura, see Bhaumik, Insurgent
Crossfire, and Harihar Bhattacharya, Communism in Tripura (Delhi: Ajanta, 1999).
26. Bhaumik, ibid.
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INDIA’S NORTHEAST
fallen back on their support base among the Bengalis. Since 1978,
they have won all but one of the state assembly elections, but their
popular base in the tribal areas has taken a beating. In 2000, for the
first time, the ruling Communists lost the state’s Tribal Areas
Autonomous District Council to a militant tribal party, the Indigenous
Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT).
The IPFT enjoyed the backing of the separatist National Liberation
Front of Tripura (NLFT). The NLFT’s rhetoric is secessionist but its
leaders have said they are open to negotiations on an “appropriate
power-sharing arrangement for maximum possible tribal control in
the state assembly, the autonomous district council and on the state’s
resources.”27 The IPFT has now been renamed Indigenous
Nationalist Front of Tripura, with two more tribal parties joining it.
One of them is the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS), the first
exclusively tribal party in the state, and the Tribal National Volunteers
(TNV), which led a bloody insurgent movement targeting Bengali settlers
and the security forces between 1978 and 1988. The ruling
Communists admit that they face a stiff challenge in the next state
assembly elections in 2003 with the INFT tying up with the Congress,
which typically wins some seats in Bengali areas.
The Communists in Tripura used a tribal organization and its leadership
to promote their complex ideology in a backward agrarian society
where slash-and-burn agriculture was still prevalent and industries
were virtually absent. The Ganamukti Parishad had retained its distinct
character even after its merger with the Communist Party organization,
but during the two decades that followed the end of the
Communist armed struggle, it played a much reduced role in influencing
the Communist political agenda. Having widened their political
base to win elections, the Communists tried to overlook the ethnic
issues until they were forced to support the tribal autonomy movement
in the 1980s. The INFT has moved into the vacuum, aggressively
ethnicizing the state’s political discourse and questioning the relevance
of Communist ideology for the tribespeople. Unlike the TUJS,
which accepted the role of a junior partner in the coalition with the
27. Nayanbashi Jamatia (NLFT leader), telephonic interview by author, used in
BBC Bengali service on 3 March 2002. Jamatia said the NLFT leadership had communicated
its desire to negotiate with Delhi through the Assam Rifles, which, he
admitted, had been in touch with them.
232 SUBIR BHAUMIK
Congress that ruled Tripura between 1988 and 1993, the INFT is
likely to dominate the coalition because it is likely to win more seats
than the Congress.
In Manipur and Assam, the Communists continue to win a few
seats in the state assembly. They have strong pockets of support that
were once built up through the struggle for peasant rights, but they
share power only as minor partners in regional coalitions. In Manipur,
the CPI has joined the Congress-led ruling coalition formed in
February 2002 to keep the BJP out of power in the state. But in
Assam, it opposed the Congress and came to power by teaming up
with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a party that grew out of the
“anti-foreigner” agitation of the 1980s, which the Communists had
opposed as “parochial” and “chauvinist.”28 The AGP later ditched the
Communists and forged an alliance with the BJP before the 2001 state
assembly elections.
But the Communist ideology, in its Maoist manifestations, did find
takers among the secessionist groups in the Northeast. The People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) of Manipur, throughout the 1980s, said it was
“part of the Indian revolution,” its stated mission to “bring down the
bandit government of Delhi.”29 Only much later did it limit itself to
fight as the “vanguard of the struggle for the independence of
Manipur.”30 Its reading of Indian polity as being “semi-colonial and
semi-feudal” bears striking resemblance with the class character analysis
of the Indian state done by Indian Maoist groups such as People’s
War or the Maoist Communist Center (MCC).
The PLA’s core leadership was trained in China. Though the ethnic
rebel armies of the Naga and the Mizo hills had received military
training in China before them, the Chinese only tried to politicize a
few Naga leaders such as Thuingaleng Muivah, the present general
secretary of the NSCN. Muivah says he had some exposure to
Marxist-Leninist ideology before he led the first batch of Naga rebels
to China in 1966 at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.31 But
there was no attempt to politicize the Mizos or most of the Nagas,
who were devout Christians. China merely wanted to use them against
28. Peoples Democracy, mouthpiece of the CPI (M), 27 March 1981.
29. Dawn (mouthpiece of the PLA of Manipur), 3 June 1980.
30. Thuingaleng Muivah, “Never Say Die,” interview by author, Mannerplaw,
Thailand, published in Sunday magazine, Kolkata, June 16–22, 1996.
31. Ibid.
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INDIA’S NORTHEAST
India to counterbalance the continued Indian support to the Tibetans.
But the PLA’s core leadership—the first batch of eighteen “Ojhas”
(pioneers)—went through heavy political training. The Chinese had
hopes they would coordinate their struggles with the Indian Maoist
groups and strengthen the cause of the Indian revolution.32
Later, ULFA, a separatist organization committed to Assam’s liberation
from India, had voiced the Marxist-Leninist (M-L) “colonial
thesis” of India’s peripheral regions, such as Assam being an “internal
colony” of India. Individual ULFA leaders, some of whom came
from left political backgrounds, have expressed admiration for CPI
(M-L) leader Charu Majumdar, hailing him as the “first real hope of
the Indian revolution.”33 The Autonomous State Demands
Committee, which wants an autonomous state for Karbi tribesmen in
central Assam, have close connections with the CPI (M-L)—at least
two of their senior leaders are in the CPI (M-L)’s central committee.
But the ASDC has lost out on influence to an armed insurgent group
in the area, the United Peoples Democratic Solidarity (UPDS). This is
a repeat of the Tripura scenario—pro-Left organizations seeking to
use ethnic issues to build up influence, but finally losing out to groups
directly articulating ethnic concerns and keen to use the distinctive
ethnicity as a plank for political power-sharing or protest.
The Maoist groups in mainland India, despite their very limited
presence in the Northeast, support the “struggle of the oppressed
nationalities” in the region.34 In private, Maoist leaders differentiate
between those struggles led by a “conscious leadership” (meaning
those who repose faith in Marxist-Leninism) and the rest.35 The
Maoists are perhaps aware of the potential for a tactical understanding
with the ethnic separatist groups in the battle against the Indian
state—but they have their preferences. The ULFA in Assam, the PLA
in Manipur, or even an NSCN led by Thuingaleng Muivah would be
more acceptable to them than a National Liberation Front of Tripura,
32. Nameirakpam Bisheswar Singh (former PLA chief), interview by author at his
Babupara residence in Imphal, 16 May 1986.
33. Arun Mahanta, an important ULFA functionary in a personal e-mail to the
author, made this comment about Charu Majumdar on 6 May 2000.
34. Biplobi Yug (Revolutionary Age), monthly journal of the Peoples War group’s
Bengal unit, 18 August 2001.
35. Comrade Sagar (real name: Niranjan Ghose), Peoples War’s central publicity
secretary, interview by author, BBC Radio World Today, 19 May 2001.
234 SUBIR BHAUMIK
which not only pursues violent ethnic cleansing against Bengalis and
smaller tribes such as the Reangs and the Chakmas, but also declares
“evangelization” of the tribes of Tripura as a key objective.
The Cross, Saffron and Crescent
THOUGH ETHNICITY AND IDEOLOGY—the former more than the latter
—remain major influences on separatist and autonomist groups in
northeast India, religion is increasingly beginning to influence the
political agenda of some of these groups. Religious distinctiveness,
when coterminous with ethnicity, exacerbated the sense of otherness
in the Naga and the Mizo hills. Since the tribespeople in both these
former head-hunting hill regions had been largely converted to
Christianity since the last quarter of the nineteenth century, they felt
emotionally alienated from the Indian cultural ethos, which was often
equated with the “Hindu entity.”36 Christianity reinforced and complemented,
rather than supplanted, the sense of distinct ethnicity and
otherness among the Nagas and the Mizos. Separatist groups such as
the Naga National Council (NNC) and the MNF laced their separatist
rhetoric with free use of Biblical imageries—and the MNF even
christened its military operations (e.g., its first uprising on 28 February
1966 was referred to as “Operation Jericho”). But rebel regiments
were named after tribal heroes such as Zampuimanga rather than after
Biblical heroes.37
When the NNC decided to send the first batch of Naga rebels to
China, the powerful Baptist Church was upset with the rebel leaders.
The NNC as well as the NSCN, which is led by the China-trained
Thuingaleng Muivah (who continues to revere Mao Zedong and
Zhou Enlai as the “greatest leaders of the century”),38 have subsequently
made conscious efforts to appease the church. Muivah, much
36. The NSCN manifesto says: “Though as a doctrine, Hinduism is not a recruiting
force, it is backed by a Hindu government. The forces of Hinduism, viz., the numberless
Indian troops, the retail and wholesale dealers, the teachers and instructors, the
intelligentsia, the prophets of non-violence, the gamblers and the snake-charmers, the
Hindi songs and Hindi films, the rasgulla makers and the Gita, are all arrayed for the
mission to supplant the Christian God, the eternal God of the Universe. The challenge
is serious.” The Manifesto was issued from the Oking, the NSCN headquarters inside
Burma, on 31 January 1980 by its chairman Issac Chisi Swu.
37. Nirmal Nibedon, Mizoram: The Dagger Brigade (Delhi: Lancers, 1983).
38. Muivah, interview in Sunday.
ETHNICITY, IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION: SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS IN 235
INDIA’S NORTHEAST
less of a practicing Christian than is the NSCN chairman Issac Chisi
Swu (who prays regularly), was the one to coin the phrase, “Nagaland
for Christ,” which found its way into the NSCN’s lexicon. This writer
found the “Nagaland for Christ” slogan boldly hanging over the
churches in the NSCN camps where Sunday services were regularly
performed by the NSCN’s “Chaplain Kilonser” (religious affairs minister)
Vedai Chakesang and his team.39 Though personally attracted by
Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought, Muivah was quick to
see that most of his leaders and fighters were devout Christians, and
that religion and ethnicity could complement each other to foment
separatism among the Nagas.
The MNF was much more serious about its Christian identity and
much more particular about fostering religiosity. Senior leaders such
as Zoramthanga, then MNF vice president (and now chief minister of
Mizoram state), personally conducted church services in the rebel
camps. Many MNF leaders became preachers after their return to
normal life. Consumption of alcohol and drugs, so easily available in
the Northeast because of its proximity to Burma, was strictly prohibited
among the guerrillas, who were encouraged to propagate their
“evil influences” to the rest of the society.40
But MNF chief Laldenga, after becoming chief minister following
the political settlement with the Indian government, snubbed the
church when it started pressurising his government to ban the sale of
alcoholic drinks. Laldenga did not want to lose one of the most
important sources of revenue for his government. The Congress took
advantage and proclaimed in its election manifesto its commitment to
promote “Christian Socialism” in Mizoram.41 The MNF was defeated
in the ensuing elections in 1989 with the church’s support. After
Laldenga’s death, Zoramthanga took over as party president and
repaired the MNF’s relations with the church. He assured the church
leaders of his commitment to continue with prohibition and the
MNF is said to have won the last state assembly elections with church
support.
39. Bhaumik, “Brothers in Arms,” Sunday, 20 June 1987.
40. MNF “order” no. 3 (1986), entitled “Eradication of Drugs and Liquor in Mizo
Society,” issued to all units of the organization.
41. Congress (I) manifesto for the 1989 Mizoram state assembly elections, issued
in Aizawl, Mizoram.
236 SUBIR BHAUMIK
In neighboring Tripura, first-generation Christian converts constituted
a large percentage of the leadership and the fighters of the
Tribal National Volunteers (TNV). Its chairman, Bijoy Hrangkhawl,
remains a devout Christian. Non-Christian tribesmen who joined the
TNV were encouraged, though not forced, to convert. But the state’s
strongest rebel group now, the NLFT, insists on conversion of non-
Christian recruits. Some of those who have broken away from the
NLFT—such as its former area commander Nayanbashi Jamatia—
are Hindus or animists who say they strongly resent “the leadership’s
interference with personal faiths and religions.”42
The NLFT, in keeping with its stated objective of turning Tripura
into “the land of Christ,” has also issued fiats to tribal communities
to convert to Christianity as a whole.43 That has provoked the predominantly
animist Reangs and the Hindu Jamatia tribesmen to resist
them. Even after the NLFT “banned” the worship of Durga
(Goddess of Power), Saraswati (Goddess of Learning) and Laxmi
(Goddess of Wealth) in the hills, the spiritual head of the Jamatia
tribe, “Hada Okrah” Bikram Bahadur Jamatia performed the Pujas
(worship).44 But his followers had to face attacks and Bikram Bahadur
Jamatia escaped two assassination attempts. Some leading tribal
priests, such as Shanti Kali, were killed by the NLFT; even their womenfolk
were raped by the rebels. On 7 August 1999, the NLFT kidnapped
four senior leaders of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). All four are said to be dead. The NLFT
allegedly enjoys the support of the Tripura Baptist Christian Union
(TBCU). According to TBCU sources, both voluntary and forced
conversions to Christianity have increased among the tribespeople in
Tripura since the TNV, and then the NLFT, intensified its activity.45
For many tribesmen, Christianity is a source of a new, extra-territorial
42. Nayanbashi Jamatia (NLFT leader).
43. The Constitution of the NLFT, “Sacrifice for Liberation,” issued on 22
December 1991, talks of its armed wing as the “National Holy Army.”
44. Statement of the “Hada Okrah” Bikram Bahadur Jamatia, reported in Dainik
Sambad, Bengali daily of Agartala, Tripura, 16 September 2000.
45. TBCU sources say the number of Christian converts has gone up sharply since
the TNV and NLF started operating in the hilly interiors of Tripura. In 1981,
Tripura’s Christian population stood at 24,872. By 1991, it had risen to 46,472. TBCU
sources say there are now nearly 90,000 Christians in the state, almost wholly made
up of converts. The TBCU’s mouthpiece, the Baptist Herald, details the major acts of
conversions.
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INDIA’S NORTHEAST
identity providing confidence to challenge the dominant cultures of
the Bengali migrants rather than being absorbed by such cultures.
In Manipur, the Meitei separatists, mostly born Hindus, advocated
a revival of the state’s leading pre-Hindu faith, Sanamahi. They also
tried to undermine the use of the Bengali script for the Meitei language
and promote the Sanamahi script to encourage ethnic revivalism
for strengthening the appeal of the separatist movement. But
there were hardly any reports of conversion to Christianity among the
Meitei rebel groups. They undermined the role of religion, either in
practice or by abnegation.
In Assam, the ULFA stayed silent on the question of religion, and
its guerrillas played a visible role in containing religious riots in the
Hojai region of the Nagaon district.46 The ULFA has been accused
of recruiting Muslims of Bengali origin in greater numbers in the last
few years, apparently to appease sentiments in Bangladesh, where
Muslims continue to find refuge. But this writer has been to several
ULFA camps and has interacted with a wide cross-section of ULFA
leaders and guerrillas—some still fighting and others surrendered—
and has hardly seen any religious activity in the camps. Hindu, Muslim
and Christian cadres of the ULFA participate in Assamese festivals
such as Bihu, which has more to do with harvests in what is still
essentially a peasant society.47
In Tripura, where the NLFT has run into stiff resistance not only
from Hindu tribesmen but also from left-minded rebel groups such
as the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), religion has also played a divisive
role in the Bodo separatist movement in Assam. The National
Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) is predominantly Christian.
It supports the church’s demand for the use of the Roman script for
the Bodo language—similar to the NLFT’s support for a similar
church demand to use Roman script for the Tripuri Kokborok language
—and its guerrillas have killed many Bodo intellectuals, cultural
icons and writers who oppose the demand. Their victims include a
46. “ULFA jangira bandhuk uchiye danga thamalen” (ULFA stops riots at the point
of gun), a report in Ananda Bazar Patrika, Bengali daily of Kolkata, 21 December
1992.
47. This writer has extensively visited a number of ULFA camps in Bhutan and
Burma as well as those of other northeast Indian rebel groups. Absence of religious
activity is conspicuous in ULFA camps and those of the Meitei rebel groups.
238 SUBIR BHAUMIK
former president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (Bodo Literary Society).
The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), the Bodo Peoples Action
Committee (BPAC) and the underground Bodoland Liberation Tigers
Force (BLTF) remain committed to the “traditional Bodo way of life”
and oppose the demand for using Roman script for the Bodo language.
The overt Christian religiosity of some separatist groups has provoked
Hindu nationalist groups such as the RSS to see a “foreign
hand” behind the ethnic rebellions of northeast India. RSS leaders,
upset with both the spread of Christianity in ever-new areas of the
Northeast as well as rebel attacks on their leaders and institutions supported
by them, refer to the church’s use of “liberation theology” slogans
like “To Christ through People’s Movements” (used by some
Baptist denominations in the Northeast) as evidence of its connivance
with ethnic separatism.48 To counteract this alleged nexus, the
RSS is trying to infiltrate a number of ethnic movements, mostly
spearheaded by smaller tribes who oppose imposition of Christianity
by bigger ethnic groups and rebel armies. Along the Tripura-Mizoram
border, the RSS has a strong presence in the camps where the Reangs,
displaced by violent evangelistic Mizo groups, have taken shelter.
There have been reports that the Reang rebel group, Bru National
Liberation Front (BNLF), has received backing from the RSS—as
have the Jamatias opposing the NLFT. The RSS has even asked the
federal home ministry to provide arms and funds to the Reang and
the Jamatia groups. But most of the organizations supported by the
RSS represent mainland Indian communities.
The Congress had also used the religious factor in the Northeast
when it built up a Zeliang Naga leader, Rani Gaidiliu, to counter the
Naga separatist movement. The Rani’s followers practiced the animistic
Haraka faith and were opposed to Christianity. But unlike the
RSS, which sees religion as the major cause of the ethnic divide in the
Northeast, the Congress used religion to promote challenges to separatist
movements and weaken them by simultaneously playing on the
religious (Haraka versus Christian) and the ethnic (Zeliangs as different
from Nagas) divide.49 Its stand on the religious question in the
48. V. Sudarshan (RSS chief), interview by author, Kolkata, 20 January 2002.
49. S. C. Dev, Nagaland, the Untold Story (Kolkata: Glory Printers, 1988).
ETHNICITY, IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION: SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS IN 239
INDIA’S NORTHEAST
Northeast has been governed by electoral concerns—from the use of
the sects of Anukul Thakur and Anandmoyi Ma, Hindu cult figures, to
win the Bengali Hindu vote in Tripura, to the use of Pir of Badarpur
or Jamaat leader Assad Madani in Assam to win the Muslim vote, to
the championing of “Christian Socialism” in Mizoram—and its use of
religious issues in the Northeast smacks of rank opportunism.
But though the RSS has been stridently vocal about the church-separatist
nexus, its preoccupation with the emerging threat of Islamic
radicalism in the Northeast and the rest of the country has occasionally
prompted its leaders to try and promote “Hindi-Christian understanding”
in the region. The RSS chief V. Sudarshan recently told a
news conference that “the resurgence of militant Islam based in
neighboring Bangladesh and continuous infiltration from that country
were the biggest threat to the region that Hindus and Christians
must fight together.”50 But efforts to bridge the Hindu-Christian
divide in the Northeast by playing up the issue of illegal infiltration
from Bangladesh were not very successful after Hindu fundamentalists
elsewhere in India attacked Christian preachers, including the brutal
murder of Australian priest Graham Staines, which evoked a lot of
protest from the Christians in the Northeast.
By the time India was partitioned, the Muslim population in northeast
India was mostly concentrated in Assam with a small sprinkling
in Tripura. Assam, similar to undivided Bengal, was ruled by a Muslim
League government during the Second World War. During that phase,
a large number of peasants from Eastern Bengal were encouraged to
settle down on the “chars” (river islands) of the Brahmaputra and its
tributaries. But just before Partition, Sylhet was detached from Assam
and given to Pakistan. Some Hindu leaders felt that “amputation of
the diseased arm” had been good for Assam.51 But the inflow of
Muslim migrants to Assam has continued even after the breakup of
Pakistan. Some religious parties in Bangladesh still feel that Assam
should have gone to East Pakistan during the Partition because of its
large Muslim population.52 In Assam and princely Tripura, Islamic
50. Sudarshan’s news conference as reported in Shillong Times, Meghalaya, 16 May
1997.
51. Sardar Patel, quoted in R.N. Aditya, Corridors of Memory (Kolkata: KLM Firma,
1970).
52. Jamaat-i-Islami monograph, “Bharat Baghe Mussalmanra ki Hariyeche”
(Dhaka, 1969).
240 SUBIR BHAUMIK
parties tried to merge those territories with Pakistan during and after
1947—and parties such as the Jamaat-i-Islami continue to feel these
areas of northeast India would be a “normal appendage” of
Bangladesh.
But until the rise of the BJP in India and its growth in parts of
Assam by skillful exploitation of the Babri Masjid issue, Islamic radicalism
was practically absent in Assam and the rest of the Northeast.
The riots during the Assam agitation, though apparently aimed at
“outsiders” and “infiltrators,” did target the Muslims of Bengali origin
in a big way. More than two thousand of them were killed in the
riots at Nellie and Chaulkhowa Chapori from February to March
1983. The ferocity of the violence split the groups leading the Assam
agitation along religious lines, and a number of Assamese Muslim
leaders broke away from the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and
the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) immediately after
the 1983 riots, alleging that the agitating groups had been “infiltrated
by the RSS.”53 But there was no violent Muslim backlash. Only some
defense groups, such as the All Assam Minority Students Union
(AAMSU), were organized in the predominantly Muslim area. And
though political parties and the police in Assam made exaggerated
projections of their strength and intentions, and the local Assamese
press floated stories about their linkages to Islamic fundamentalist
groups in Bangladesh, these groups were essentially defensive in
nature.
Immediately after the riots and the Assam accord of 1985 that
brought an end to the agitation, the Muslims of Bengali origin joined
their linguistic Hindu brethren to form the United Minorities Forum
(UMF). Traditionally they had voted for Congress but they felt let
down by the Congress government in 1983. One of the founders of
the UMF said: “For the first time in post-Partition Assam, the Bengali
Hindus and Muslims felt the need to come together to protect their
interests. We found we were in the same boat. Since we were more
than 40 percent of the state’s population, we were sure we could
defend our interests against rising Assamese chauvinism.”54 But after
53. Seema Guha, “Assam Movement: Shadow of the RSS,” Sunday, 28 February –
6 March 1983.
54. Gholam Osmani (former UMF president now back in Congress), interview by
author, 28 May 1995.
ETHNICITY, IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION: SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS IN 241
INDIA’S NORTHEAST
the rise of the BJP, Bengali Hindus in Assam, unlike their brethren
in West Bengal and Tripura, largely turned toward the politics of
Hindutva in a decisive way. The Muslims were left with little
choice—in elections, they began to vote for the Congress and most
of the UMF leaders returned to that party. But the younger and
more religious elements did form some militant groups, defensive
to begin with but now increasingly proactive. The Idgah Protection
Force (IPF) was formed just before the demolition of the Babri
Masjid at Ayodhya, and some of its supporters were responsible
for the attack on the Hindus at Hojai in 1992, in which ninety
Hindus were killed. Incidentally, the victims were mostly Bengali
Hindus who had started supporting the BJP and its campaign to
construct a Hindu temple at Ayodhya in place of the disputed
Babri Mosque.
Following the Hojai riots, a number of Muslim radical groups
have surfaced in Assam, essentially feeding on the community’s
growing insecurity in a state where the power-holder elites see
them as “agents of Pakistan or Bangladesh.” The Assamese fear of
being reduced to a minority in their own land, fuelled by the changing
demography of the state during the last forty years, has given
rise to strong anti-Muslim feelings. Assamese political groups
advocate the scrapping of the Illegal Migrants Determination by
Tribunals (IMDT) Act promulgated in 1983 by the state’s Congress
government. These groups say the act, by placing the burden of
proof of someone’s foreign identity on the state, is actually protecting
“illegal foreign migrants” in Assam.55 The Assamese
groups have received strong support from the BJP, which, in
Assam now, has a strong base both among Bengali and Assamese
Hindus. Recently, the regional party, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP),
has called for a special session of the Assam legislative assembly to
discuss the infiltration issue. The ruling Congress government has
ruled that out, suspecting a fresh move by the AGP and the BJP to
whip up passions against the IMDT Act, a legislation the Muslims
see as their only source of legal protection against arbitrary and
forced deportations.
55. Sarbananda Sonowal (AASU president), interview by author, aired in South
Asia Report, BBC World Service Radio, 22 August 1994.
242 SUBIR BHAUMIK
In the 2001 state assembly elections in Assam, the AGP and the
BJP worked out a political alliance to fight the elections together. For
the first time, Assam witnessed the politics of “religious consolidation,”
as the AGP was now reconciled to the BJP’s political stand of
treating Bengali Hindus as refugees and Bengali Muslims as infiltrators,
preferring to shelter the former and push back the latter into
Bangladesh. The Congress came back to power with the support of
its votebanks among the Muslim and the Tea tribes (descendants of
those who came from Bihar’s tribal regions to work the British tea
estates in the nineteenth century), who account for more than 40 percent
of the electorate. The BJP’s subsequent efforts to penetrate the
Tea tribes, exploiting the religious divide within the community
(Assam’s tea laborers are largely first- or second-generation Christian
converts, but many remain Hindus), have not met with much success.
Assam’s Muslim and Christian minorities, faced with “religious consolidation”
of Bengali and Assamese Hindus who would account for
more than 40 percent of the population, have decided to stick it out
with the Congress. Their combined strength does give them a chance
to share power and ensure security.
But this does not appease some Muslims in Assam who have
formed militant Islamic groups. The Muslim United Liberation
Tigers of Assam (MULTA) is the strongest of these groups.56
Formed in 1997, the MULTA has close connections with the Sunni
radical group, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The MULTA leaders
signed an agreement with SSP leaders at a meeting at Jamait Ul
Uloom Ali Madrassa in Chittagong in February 2001. The SSP
decided to back the MULTA in its militant activities in Assam. At the
political level, the MULTA demands 30 percent reservation in education
and employment for Muslims in Assam and also a similar reservation
for seats in the state assembly, quite in keeping with their share
56. The Assam police lists a total of seventeen Muslim fundamentalist groups it
says are active in Assam, including the MULTA. The other groups are Muslim United
Liberation Front of Assam (MULFA), Adam Sena, People’s United Liberation Front
(PULF), Muslim Security Council of Assam (MSCA), United Liberation Militia of
Assam (ULMA), Islamic Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA), Muslim Volunteer
Force (MVF), Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS), Islamic United Reformation Protest of
India (IURPI), United Muslim Liberation Front of Assam (UMLFA), Revolutionary
Muslim Commandos (RMC), Muslim Liberation Army (MLA), Muslim Tiger Force
(MTF), Muslim Security Force (MSF), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami of Bangladesh, and
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen of Pakistan.
ETHNICITY, IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION: SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS IN 243
INDIA’S NORTHEAST
of the state’s population. But at the religious level, they want the
establishment of a chain of Islamic courts in Assam to dispense justice
in keeping with the tenets of Shariat.57
The Assam police have arrested some MULTA activists, while some
have surrendered. During interrogation, some of them have confessed
to receiving training at al-Qaeda and Taliban camps in
Afghanistan with logistic support provided by Pakistan’s Inter-
Services Intelligence (ISI).58 The MULTA also recently participated in
a convention of Islamic radical groups in Bangladesh held at Ukhia
near the coastal town of Cox’s Bazaar on 10–11 May 2002. Six
Bangladesh-based Islamic militant groups, such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al
Islami (HUJAI) and Islamic Shashantantra Andolan, were joined by
two Burmese Rohingya Muslim rebel groups and the MULTA at the
convention, which was attended by more than sixty delegates of the
total nine groups who joined the convention. The convention decided
to form an umbrella organization to coordinate the jihad for turning
Bangladesh from a “Dar-ul-Harb” (Land of Infidels) into a “Dar-ul-
Islam” (Land of Islam)—but it also decided to intensify efforts for
the creation of a “Brihat Bangladesh” (Greater Bangladesh) by incorporating
areas of Assam and Burma’s Arakan province that are now
largely settled by Muslims of Bengali origin. Indian intelligence sees
the Bangladesh Islamic Manch as a replica of the United Jihad
Council in Pakistan. While the United Jihad Council coordinates the
struggle for Kashmir’s forced merger with Pakistan, the Bangladesh
Islamic Manch, in its inaugural declaration, says it will work for the
“willful merger” of areas of Assam and the Arakans, which have large
Muslim populations of Bangladeshi origin.59 That Assam has India’s
highest percentage of Muslims in any state other than Kashmir only
reinforces their fear.
At last, the scare scenario that generations of Assamese have been
fed is finally coming true. Groups that would prefer to merge areas of
Assam with a Muslim majority and contiguous to Bangladesh have
finally emerged. Security analysts in Assam envisage the “eastward
surge of the Jihadis”—a projected growth of Islamic militant activity
57. Saikia, “Swadhin Asom or Brihot Bangla” (Independent Assam or Greater
Bengal), in Contours, a collection of his columns (Assam: Sagittarius, 2001).
58. Ibid.
59. “Bangladesh Islamic Manch—Formation and Alignments,” report prepared by
the Special Bureau’s Bangladesh Desk, June 2002.
244 SUBIR BHAUMIK
in the arc that begins at India’s Siliguri Corridor (North Bengal area
that connects India to its Northeast)—goes through Bangladesh and
stretches in India’s Northeast and Burma’s Arakan province with linkages
running west toward Pakistan and the Middle East and east
toward Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.60 The presence of
Islamist parties, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Islamic Aikyo Jote
in Bangladesh’s present ruling coalition, has fuelled fears that the
country founded on the ideals of Bengali nationalism might become
the fulcrum of jihad in the eastern slice of South Asia, which is quite
as sensitive and conflict-prone as its west.61 The repression of Hindu,
Christian and Buddhist minorities in Bangladesh after the change of
guard in October 2001, widely reported in Bangladesh’s vibrant and
largely secular press, has provided substance to such apprehensions.62
If globalization is the mantra of the new millennium, then conflicts,
just as economies, are likely to be globalized. And if the religious
divide fuels a “clash of civilizations,” South Asia and its regions
will be sucked into it. Religion, which led to the Partition of the
Indian subcontinent but did not overtly influence the “little nationalisms”
of northeast India, may begin to play a more important role
in politics of the region. Not the least because ruling entities such as
the BJP in India and the four-party, BNP-Jamaat-led coalition in
Bangladesh are choosing to play up and play by the religious divide.
60. Saikia, Contours.
61. Bertil Lintner, “Beware of Bangladesh: Cocoon of Terror,” Far Eastern Economic
Review, 4 April 2002.
62. Bangladesh press reports detailing atrocities on minorities are quoted in the
Annual Autumn Souvenir of the Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Council.
Our Special Correspondent
All the nationalities are equal. Discrimination against, or oppression of, any nationality, and acts which undermine the unity of the nationalities are prohibited..
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv2n1/aiprf.
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